National Partnership for Reinventing Government
(formerly the National Performance Review)

A Brief History

by John Kamensky
January 1999

The National Partnership for Reinventing Government is the Clinton-Gore Administration's
initiative to reform the way the federal government works. Our mission is to create a
government that "works better, costs less, and gets results Americans care about."
Begun in the early days of the Administration, with Vice President Al Gore at its helm,
our task force is the longest-running reform effort in U.S. history.

We focussed on communicating the reinvention message to the federal work force. We developed a
training video, prepared an interactive CD-ROM disk of the original reports, sponsored an electronic
forum on reinvention issues involving hundreds of people across the country, and created a newsletter
for federal employees. We sponsored "Net Results," an electronic interchange of information and ideas
among federal employees and the general public. This now includes a web site (www.npr.gov) with links to
a series of other related sites.

Our most important results in 1994 included:

helping agencies create their first sets of customer service standards

piloting a partnership with the State of Oregon to focus on jointly achieving program results in
children and family programs

developing the "Hammer Award" for federal employees who had reinvented their part of the government.

Working with Congress in the passage of 34 laws enacted a quarter of all of our recommendations
needing legislation. This included authority to reduce the size of the workforce by offering bonuses
for employees leaving voluntarily and major reforms to the government's procurement system.

To further our work with entire agencies, NPR selected 32 "High
Impact Agencies" to help them develop
strategies for transforming their performance, even in the face of reduced budgets. We selected these
agencies based on their high degree of interaction with the public, business, or the operation of other
federal agencies.

The leaders of the High Impact Agencies have committed to more than 250 specific improvements in services
to the public by 2000. These agencies cover 1.4 million of the 1.8 million civil servants and include the
Internal Revenue Service, the Weather Service, the Customs Service, the Park Service, the Patent and Trademark
Office, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration.
These agencies' commitments are listed in the President's 1999 budget and also appear on NPR's Internet
web page. One example of our work with one of these agencies is the joint task force we sponsored with
IRS employees and managers to restructure that agency's operations. The recommendations of this group
contributed to major legislative changes and are driving major changes in that organization.

We had recommended about $177 billion in savings over a 5-year period. Agencies locked into place
about $137 billion. In addition, as of March 1998, the Hammer Award winners estimate savings or
cost avoidances of about $31 billion because of their actions.

Agencies eliminated about 640,000 pages of internal rules, about 16,000 pages of Federal Regulations,
and are rewriting 31,000 additional pages into plain language.

Agencies are sponsoring 850 labor-management partnerships. A 1998 survey of employees show those in
organizations that actively promote reinvention are twice as satisfied with their jobs.

Over 570 federal organizations have committed to more than 4,000 customer service standards.

Most importantly, public trust in the federal government is finally increasing after a 30-year decline.
Various polls have shown a clear and steady increase over the past four years. While it is not clear
this is directly linked to the results of reinvention, we believe reinvention has made an important
contribution.

In 1998, we co-sponsored with the Office of Personnel Management and other agencies a governmentwide survey
of federal employees to better understand the extent of changes resulting from reinvention initiatives over
the previous six years. The results showed a dramatic increase in employee understanding of the desired
business results of their agency and their own roles in improving customer service. However, employees said
there was insufficient attention on dealing with poor performers and labor-management relations. Vice
President Gore has charged agency leaders with taking action on the results of this survey and has committed
to repeating the survey in the coming year to assess progress.

In addition, we will work with agencies to create a balanced set of measures for assessing agency performance
that include business results, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. We will soon complete a study
of best practices in private companies and in agencies that are pioneering the use of balanced measures, such
as the Veterans Benefits Administration, the IRS, National Security Agency, and Postal Service. If appropriate,
we will propose the President direct all agencies to create and use balanced measures. This would include not
only additional employee surveys, but also surveys of customers and an expansion of the President's
"Conversations with America" directive, which requires agencies to reach out to their customers and use what
they learn to fine tune their operations.

Create an Electronic Government. Government will be transformed like "amazon.com" transformed bookselling.

Initiatives begun in early 1997 are designed to allow anyone who wants to transact business with the government
electronically to do so. By the end of FY 2000, nearly 40 million Americans will. Emerging forms of information
technology will be vital tools in changing Americans' experience with their government. They will be able to access
information to solve problems themselves through the Internet, via telephones, and through neighborhood kiosks.

In early 1999, Vice President Gore launched "Access America for Students." This initiative is piloting the integrated
delivery of a suite of services in 5-10 colleges, to be expanded over the course of this year and in 2000. Services
targeted for these pilots include electronic income tax filing, student loan eligibility, student loan applications
and renewals, online address changes, national park reservations, veterans' educational benefits, campus admissions
and services, and local merchant purchasing. Technology components will be digital identification/signature, secure
electronic payments, and encrypted forms processing. For the first time, people will be able to complete paperless
non-financial transactions with the federal government using the Internet.

The Access America initiative is based on the concept that the customer – not the government – should control access
to personal information. Using security technologies and privacy policies will provide a way for Americans to
control access to information and get the services they need. The initiative will initially target to specific
user or customer groups. By January 2001, this approach will be expanded beyond college students to seniors,
businesses, and government employees.

In addition, the Government Information Technology Services Board, which spearheads the Access America initiatives,
is promoting electronic access to a wide array of services. Its 60 on-going initiatives and task forces include:

Transform Agencies with the Greatest Impact on Americans. The High
Impact Agencies will complete the reinvention
of their operations and their relationships with their customers.

Our work with those agencies that have the most interactions with individuals and businesses continues. One
effort, for example, is a campaign to use "Plain Language" in government communications. Following a June
1998 Presidential directive, agencies are now required to communicate in clear language with their customers.
As an incentive, Vice President Gore monthly presents an award to an agency that has done a terrific job in
revising its communications or regulations.

By January 2001, we will have worked closely with selected agencies on dramatic improvements in their operations,
much like we did in 1998 with the IRS. We will assist agencies by sponsoring benchmarking studies of best
practices, helping front-line employees re-engineering processes, and working in partnership with major unions
to improve labor-management relationships in these agencies.

Mobilize America's Real Heroes to Get the Message Out. Create an active movement that lets people know that the
government is changing forever.

While there have been hundreds of remarkable improvements in the way government works over the past six years,
the New York Times calls it the "silent revolution." Likewise, our 1998 survey of federal employees shows than
just a little more than one-third see reinvention as a priority in their agencies. The only way Americans will
increase their trust in government is for them to experience a difference in their personal interactions and to
hear about these improvements from their neighbors and the media.

Federal employees are also citizens. They too experience changes in their jobs and the services they deliver.
The challenge is for them – the real American heroes of reinvention – to tell their stories of how they deliver
value to their neighbors, their children, their community.